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Africville
Table of Contents
Africville

Table of Contents
 * Introduction
   
 * 
   Origins
   
 * 
   Taxes, but no services
   
 * 
   The Halifax explosion
   
 * 
   Culture
   
 * 
   “Urban renewal”
   
 * 
   Aftermath
   

Fast Facts
 * Related Content

Media
 * Images

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 * Contributors
 * Article History


CULTURE OF AFRICVILLE

Africville was a culturally significant place. The Africville Brown Bombers were
a popular team in the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes—a business largely
run out of Africville—and drew big crowds from the founding of the CHL in 1895
until it closed in 1930.

In the 1960s, boxer Joe Louis visited Africville, as did musician Duke
Ellington. Louis was in Halifax to referee a wrestling match and asked where all
the Black people lived. He was told Africville, and so he went to see it for
himself. Ellington’s father-in-law was from Africville, and he stayed to visit
family.

The singer Portia White was from Africville, as was George Dixon, the first
Black world champion of boxing. The Seaview African United Baptist Church was
well-known for its preachers and music.

Despite difficult living conditions and Africville’s growing reputation as a
“slum” in the 20th century, residents generally maintained a deep pride in their
community. It was seen as a rural idyll apart from Halifax. Many cited the
people and the seaside location, with one well-travelled resident calling it
“one of the most beautiful spots I’ve been in.”




“URBAN RENEWAL”

Plans to turn Africville into industrial land were revived and approved by the
Halifax City Council in 1947, when the area was rezoned for that purpose.
Reports prepared for the council in 1956 and 1957 recommended re-housing
residents to make way for industrial projects. In 1962, the city approved plans
for an expressway to downtown Halifax that would run over Africville, but it was
never built.

At a public meeting in Africville in 1962, 100 Africvillians voted strongly
against relocation, preferring to improve the existing community. In an
interview at that time with the CBC, homeowner Joe Skinner explained that
Africville was a place where Black people were free and that he did not want to
move into Halifax to end segregation. “I think we should have a chance to
redevelop our own property as well as anybody else,” he said. “When you own a
piece of property, you’re not a second-class citizen. That’s why my people own
this land. When your land is being taken away from you and you’re not offered
anything, then you become a peasant in any man’s country.”



The Halifax council voted to remove the “blighted housing and dilapidated
structures in the Africville area.” The city promised a process of “urban
renewal” where residents would be relocated to superior housing in Halifax. The
first land was expropriated in 1964, and homes were bulldozed lot by lot over
the next five years. Some residents were moved to derelict housing or rented
public housing. When a city-organized moving company cancelled, Halifax brought
in dump trucks to move residents and their possessions. The stigma of being from
Africville was compounded when families arrived at their new homes on the back
of dump trucks.

Locals likened Africville to a war zone, with houses disappearing daily. Several
homeowners found that their homes had been bulldozed without their knowledge or
permission. Others had only a few hours’ notice before the bulldozers came. One
man returned from a hospital stay to find that his house had been destroyed.
Many left with what they could carry. The church was destroyed in the middle of
the night in the spring of 1967. Many residents saw this as the death knell for
the community. Expropriation sped up as residents took what deals they could and
left.

In 1969, the final property was expropriated and demolished, and the last of
Africville’s 400 residents left. One resident, Eddie Carvery, returned to the
site of Africville in 1970 and remained there, in protest, for more than four
decades.




AFTERMATH

After the relocation, displaced residents found the “home for a home” deals did
not materialize. Many found the sum paid for their land and property was only
enough for a downpayment on a new home or for a short period of rental in public
housing. Jobs were still hard to find, as many companies refused to hire Black
people. Lacking a church or any communal spaces, the displaced residents drifted
apart. Some moved to Montréal, Toronto, and Winnipeg. Those who stayed in
Halifax felt forced to turn toward welfare to cover the rising costs of life in
the city.

In 1969, residents formed the Africville Action Committee in order to seek
redress and to keep the community alive. The Africville Genealogy Society was
formed in 1983 for the same purpose, and former residents began holding picnics,
church services, and weekend gatherings on the site of Africville.



The land of Africville was turned into private housing, ramps for the A. Murray
MacKay Bridge, and the Fairview Container Terminal. The central area was turned
into a dog park called Seaview Park.

The site was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1996. The citation
called it “a site of pilgrimage for people honouring the struggle against
racism.” On 24 February 2010, Halifax Regional Municipality Mayor Peter Kelly
apologized for the destruction of Africville and said that the city would build
a replica church. The church museum opened in 2012, and the area was renamed
Africville Park. On 30 January 2014, Canada Post Corporation issued a
commemorative stamp depicting a photograph of seven young girls—all community
members—against an illustrated background of the village.

Former Africvillians and their descendants organized summer reunions in the
park, with many camping on the site of their former homes. The church museum
began holding Christmas services in 2012. Africville today is a potent symbol in
the fight against racism and segregation in Nova Scotia and beyond.

Jon Tattrie

An earlier version of this entry was published by The Canadian Encyclopedia .



Halifax
Table of Contents
Halifax

Table of Contents
 * Introduction
   
 * 
   History
   
 * 
   The contemporary city
   

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 * Halifax summary
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HALIFAX

Nova Scotia, Canada
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Written by
Brett McGillivray
Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Geography, Capilano University. Author of The
Geography of British Columbia: People and Landscapes in Transition; Canada: A
Nation of Regions; and other...

Brett McGillivray
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Summary


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Halifax



Halifax, in full Halifax Regional Municipality, city and capital of Nova Scotia,
Canada. A major amalgamation and incorporation as Halifax Regional Municipality
(referred to as HRM) occurred in 1996 and united the City of Halifax, the City
of Dartmouth, the Town of Bedford, and Halifax County Municipality within
boundaries that include the original Halifax county (with the exception of First
Nations [Native American] reserves). Halifax is a navy creation. It owes its
existence largely to its location on one of the largest and deepest ice-free
natural harbours in the world, which, over time, made Halifax one of the most
important Canadian commercial ports on the Atlantic seaboard. At latitude 44° N,
it is nearly halfway between the Equator and the North Pole, giving Halifax a
relatively mild winter climate. The original city occupied a rocky peninsula 4.5
miles (7.2 km) long and 2 miles (3.2 km) wide that protrudes into the inlet and
divides the harbour into an inner (Bedford) and outer basin. Inc. 1841. Pop.
(2011) 390,096; (2021) 439,819.




HISTORY

Coastal areas of Nova Scotia in the region of Halifax were inhabited seasonally
by Mi’kmaq before the influx of Europeans. The east coast of North America was
the scene of a continuous territorial struggle beginning in the 16th century
when the French and British (mainly) clashed, initially over control of fishing
grounds, later furs, and then land for settlers. Halifax played a significant
role in the ongoing battle for control of these resources. The city site was
first visited by Samuel de Champlain about 1605, and in the early 18th century
it was a French fishing station. The Nova Scotia peninsula was a component of
the French colony of Acadia at that time. The British takeover of Nova Scotia in
1713 resulted in a permanent British settlement at Halifax when Edward
Cornwallis arrived with some 2,500 settlers, most of them from England, and
founded a fortified town (1749) as a counterbalance to Louisbourg, the French
stronghold in Cape Breton. Originally called Chebucto, the town was soon renamed
for George Montagu Dunk, 2nd earl of Halifax, president of the Board of Trade
and Plantations and among those who planned the founding of the settlement. The
following year Dartmouth was established across the harbour, and in 1752 ferry
service began between the two towns.

The settlement patterns and growth of Halifax were not similar to most colonial
coastal communities where inhabitants made their living by fishing and farming.
The thin soils surrounding Halifax were never good for agriculture, and the
fishing banks were a considerable distance from its harbour. The growth of
Halifax was directly related to war and threats of war, in conjunction with
British, and later Canadian, military and trade policies. The British conquest
of the French in North America by 1763 elevated the military status of Halifax.
However, it was the American Revolution (1775–83) that positioned Halifax as the
military anchor for the remaining British North American colonies after the
establishment of the United States. As a result of the conflict, Halifax was the
recipient of many loyalists, including black loyalists.

Services for navy and army personnel were the mainstay of Halifax’s early
economy, but its natural (and fortified) harbour was ideally situated for the
trade between Britain, North America, and the West Indies, and Halifax evolved
as an important import-export centre. It was incorporated as a city in 1841. By
the mid-19th century, railway connections to its international port only
enhanced its economic position in Atlantic Canada as the centre for finance,
wholesaling, and educational services. It also had a manufacturing base that
included shipbuilding and sugar refining. However, its fortunes changed with
confederation (1867), when federal government policies of protectionism were put
in place to combat a global recession (1873–95). International trade, a
cornerstone for the economy of Halifax, was decimated, and Halifax lost much of
its financial, wholesale, and manufacturing functions through the merger,
buyout, and takeover by Montreal- and Toronto-based firms.


Britannica Quiz
A Capital Idea


Halifax explosion of 1917

Halifax continually served as a British army and navy base, one of the most
heavily fortified outside Europe, until its dockyard and defenses were taken
over by the Canadian government in 1906. Although never besieged, the city
suffered from a disastrous munitions ship explosion in 1917 that ultimately was
responsible for nearly 2,000 deaths and devastated much of the city’s north
side. During World War I and World War II, Halifax was Canada’s largest and most
important naval base.



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External Websites
 * CRW Flags - Flag of Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia (Canada)
 * The Canadian Encyclopedia - Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
 * Official Site of Halifax Regional Municipality

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 * Table Of Contents
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Select Citation Style
MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style
McGillivray, Brett. "Halifax". Encyclopedia Britannica, 4 Feb. 2019,
https://www.britannica.com/place/Halifax-Nova-Scotia. Accessed 27 February 2023.
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External Websites
 * CRW Flags - Flag of Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia (Canada)
 * The Canadian Encyclopedia - Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
 * Official Site of Halifax Regional Municipality

Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
 * Halifax - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
 * Halifax - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)